Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), whose 32 year career in the House of Representatives came to an end yesterday, said Friday that he’s told Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) that he would welcome an interim appointment to the seat expected to be vacated by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).

Frank said that the fiscal cliff deal that passed the House of Representatives earlier this week and set the stage for a return to the same legislative fight in a matter of months “means that February, March and April are going to be among the most important months” for the American economy….

“I’m not going to be coy. It’s not anything I’ve ever been good at,” Frank said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I’ve told the governor that I would now like, frankly, to do that because I would like to be a part of that. It’s only a three-month period. I wouldn’t want to do anything more. I don’t want to run again.”

If this happens, it will be proof that the Flying Spagetti Monster is a kind and generous fiction. I can’t believe I’ve been good enough to merit a benison* such as this.

*Yes, that does raise images of rack of benison, but this is a family show, so I’m not going there.¤

maybe it’s just me but I think it’s a terrible idea. I read somewhere else (or maybe here) that it is better to have someone in the position that can begin campaigning from day 1 for the special election. Frank would be fantastic if he were to run in the special election, but as a placeholder, it puts whomever the Dems put up against Brown at a clear disadvantage, not only in name recognition, but they lose the status of being the “incumbent” regardless of how long they have served.

Thanks, Tom. I was hoping/expecting that this TREMENDOUS news would soon appear on the “front-page” (and appropriate that it would come from one of its two Bay Staters).

I have to believe that Deval Patrick will accept (and Ed Markey welcome) this offer.

And to imagine that Massachusetts and nation-wide members of the “reality-based community” would be represented by both Senators Barney Frank and Elizabeth Warren during the upcoming fiscal hullabaloos makes Frank’s declaration this morning all the more celebratory.

@Seanindc: Patrick’s philosophy seems to be that interim appointments SHOULD be placeholders. He did the same thing with Kennedy’s seat when the Lion died. I can see his point.

On the other hand, I’m taking the inch that Barney’s giving and hoping for the whole yard. It would be absolutely fantastic if Frank decided he wanted to run after all once he’s had a taste of interim Senate power. Please please please, Barney!

@Seanindc: That train has already left the station. Markey is going to run; he’s not going to leave the House until/unless he wins the Senate election, and MA and national Dems are lining up behind him.

Plus – and here’s the real point: Frank is right. The next three months are critical. Someone running in a tough race won’t be that effective as a senator. We need someone who is both adept at capitol hill stuff, and isn’t encumbered by further ambition. The former head of the House Banking Committee is pretty much the ideal guy for the job in the real, as opposed to the ideal, world of US politics right now.

Brilliant! Barney hasn’t lost his will to fight, if only to get through the deficit brawl (which we need him for–not a rookie). That would free up Markey to do some serious planning for his campaign because, well, Republicans.

@catclub: Fool, please. I’ll be 72 next month and I’m raising a 3 yr old. I’m in reasonably good health (no longer even need glasses for distance or reading–some kind of metamorphosis) and drive my 5 spd like a pro still. I think I’ll see my great-grandson grown up at this rate.

Frank’s treatment of the King of the Village, Bob Woodward, on “Morning Ho” this morning was a joy to behold. To his boundless credit, Frank doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

Village princeling Dancin’ Dave does not abide such treatment by Democrats on his program. Besides there may not be any room around that table, as I imagine that ex-Senator Holy Joe, “the national conscience,” will likely be a permanent guest there.

@catclub: Why, will they force him to join the Senate Triathlon team or something? I only object to old elected officials when their view and minset have calcified, and calcification is neither something that only happens to old people nor something that’s ever happened to Barney.

Someone running in a tough race won’t be that effective as a senator. We need someone who is both adept at capitol hill stuff, and isn’t encumbered by further ambition.

I’m never sure what incentive anyone has to deal with someone they know will be gone in 90 days or less.
Barney probably doesn’t have any influence over Senate R’s and he’s certainly not going to persuade any House R’s.
So I’m not convinced he makes one iota of a difference in that spot, as far as legislating, or forming legislation, goes.

Sorry, but appointing another Wall Street shill and AIPAC stooge is not progress. His behavior towards Chuck Hagel over the past 2 weeks, calling him everything short of a homophobic anti-Semite, was pathetic.

If the temporary Senator was supposed to be there until the next election in 2014, that would make sense, but Massachusetts is one of the states that requires and holds a special election within a very short time of the seat being vacated. (IIRC, the entire process from nominations to election needs to be completed within 6 months of the seat being vacated.)

So IMO we want the Democratic nominee for that seat to spend his/her time campaigning inside Massachusetts, not arguing with Republicans in the Senate.

@Omnes Omnibus: I thought that was true. Actually, I’m not familiar with how they name things but I thought they try and get one D and R name to put down as co-sponsors?
Franken-Frank is funnier but I thought Frank Franken harked back to old SNL comedy skits much better.

@JPL: Well, sometime back in the 1990’s, back when gay-friendly Bill Clinton signed don’t ask/don’t tell and gay marriage was not even an idea, Hagel said he would object to appointing an openly gay man to an ambassador’s job. Since then, his views, like Bill Clinton’s, like Obama’s, like most of the country – have changed. But Frank wants to hang him on his view views from 15 years ago.

That is for public consumption anyway – Hagel’s real mistake was pointing out the obvious – that he was an American senator, not an Israeli one, and American interests would be paramount in his decisionmaking. He broke the first rule of Fight Club.

The most perfect monetary system humans have yet created was the world gold standard system of the late 19th century, roughly 1870-1914. We don’t have to hypothesize too much about what a new world gold standard system could look like. We can just look at what has already been done.

The Panics of 1873, 1879, 1884, 1887, 1889, 1891, 1893, 1896, 1901, 1907, 1910, and 1913 would be fine examples of the perfection of that gold standard, not to mention that the extreme wealth inequality that resulted therefrom led to sociopolitical conditions that made the Great War something which seemed like a great idea.

It was the first great age of globalization. Net foreign investment (“current account surplus”) was regularly above 6% of GDP for Britain, and climbed to an incredible 9% of GDP before World War I. From 1880 to 1914, British exports of goods and services averaged around 30% of GDP. (In 2011, it was 19.3%.) In 1914, 44% of global net foreign investment was coming from Britain. France accounted for 20%, Germany 13%.
…
This river of capital flowed mostly to emerging markets. The United States, which was something of an emerging market in those days although one that was already surpassing its European forebears (much like China today), was a consistent capital-importer (“current account deficit”). Most British foreign capital went to Latin America; Africa accounted for much of the remainder.

All of which was freely given and not related to worldwide colonial policies of European governments, y’know.

This explosion of European capital translated into tremendous investment around the world. British-governed India had no railways in 1849. In 1880, India had 9,000 miles of track. In 1929, there were 41,000 miles of railroad in India, build by British engineers, British capital, and Indian labor. British-governed South Africa opened its first railroad in 1860. This grew to 12,000 miles of track, not including extensions into today’s Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa.

I need bandages for my forehead, as I’m banging it into my credenza repeatedly. Amazing how rail lines first get run intercity in the UK in 1830 and it takes 20 years for the Brits to start laying track to support a British innovation in a colonial possession thousands of miles away, and to do it, they used what was, in essence, captive labor to support the British economy. Colonial extraction completely sucks ass.

@JPL: Either Atrios or Political Animal put it about Hagel: “He seems like an asshole to me, but if the WAPO and all the neocons hate him, I better give him another look. He has all the right enemies.”*

“Barney probably doesn’t have any influence over Senate R’s and he’s certainly not going to persuade any House R’s.”

Substitute Elizabeth Warren for Frank and your statement is no less true. However, it is their respective fiscal expertise as well as verbal dexterity, rather than any influence over GOP nihilists, that makes each such potent Democratic figures in the ferocious debates soon to dominate Washington.

That Warren and Frank both possess such skillful media savvy, albeit expressed very differently, is another crucial asset as effective “framing” and sound bites must be part of the Democratic arsenal.

And serving as “placeholder” Senator, Barney Frank will be even more motivated (and fearless) to continue his long-running role as a Republican scourge.

@Todd:
A gold standard is great for imperial powers: You extract wealth from whichever local group of “savages” you’ve generously chosen to “civilize”, lock the value into your gold-backed currency, and do so secure in the knowledge that people who work for a living will never be able accumulate enough capital to challenge you economically or politically.

(Well, until the locals decide they’d rather risk death than be your serf. But that tends to take awhile).

@Corner Stone: Is this a recent development? I don’t know, need a bit more info.

Back in the day (i.e. “predating my birth by quite some time”) I know that narwhal tusks were sold as unicorn horns, and that the powder thereof was supposed to be a sure-fire antidote against any poison. So quite a few of the creatures were slain for the benefit of unpopular royalty.

The Panics of 1873, 1879, 1884, 1887, 1889, 1891, 1893, 1896, 1901, 1907, 1910, and 1913 would be fine examples of the perfection of that gold standard, not to mention that the extreme wealth inequality that resulted therefrom

Feature, not bug. The ultra-wealthy love the idea of the gold standard, because it creates a deflationary economy and enhances their wealth. Regular financial panics are a small price for the little people to pay so that their betters can become ever richer.

A manwith a proven ability to make trenchent pithy memorable comments unleashed from thoughts of future campaign sound-bites and roaming free in the Senate during a critical period of negociation and grandstanding? I’m in, especially given the proven sanity, temperment and style of those across the aisle.

And serving as “placeholder” Senator, Barney Frank will be even more motivated (and fearless) to continue his long-running role as a Republican scourge.

I’d suggest the obvious difference bewteen EW and Barney is that EW is there for at least 6 years, and with the incumbent racket and her being a D from MA, very likely as long as she wants to be there.
So people may not be “influenced” by her but they realize she’s going to be a player in the calculus for some time to come. Relationships used to matter in the Senate, or so they keep telling us.
Barney may have the knowledge but not the status. And his role of “scourge” is more likely to do harm to a bunch of self-satisfied ego filled pricks like Senators.
I don’t see a level comparison of EW and Barney in this context.

@Forum Transmitted Disease: Well it seems that when our illustrious FBI isn’t locating mentally deficient people to set up on terrorism charges, they also crack a few smuggling rings:Feds Crack Alleged Narwhal Tusk-Smuggling Ring
“A smuggling ring brought narwhal tusks from the Canadian Artic into Maine in a trailer with a secret compartment and then illegally sold them to American buyers, officials said.”

I just cruised Kos (it helps not to visit the comments sections)and this is what’s on the front page:
– House passed a $9.7B bill for FEMA for Sandy relief. Not much, but it’s a start, right Mr. Boehner?
– Awesome pic of now-Senator Warren being sworn in. Mr. Senator Warren holding the bible is looking mighty proud.
– And the list of the ten Republican geniuses who voted against Boehner as speaker in the full knowledge that he would in fact be re-elected. The Dave Weigel tweet on it is spot on, too. Good luck with those committee assignments!

@Percysowner: I believe Ed Markey is 66. If the person running for the seat were in his/her early 50s or younger, then the age argument might make sense. The thing is, Frank doesn’t seem interested in the long term job and Patrick has particular ideas about how the process should work, so it is what it is.

But on issue of “status”, I’d say that Frank, through his 32 years in Congress, would amply possess that precious Washington commodity, while Warren has yet to lay claim. (Being a Conquering Hero to progressives and most Massachusetts voters is not the same thing.) Also, the “bunch of self-satisfied ego filled pricks like Senators” will not easily forgive Warren for her exposing those puny privates (and the ones of their House confederates) during hearings on the Consumer Finance Protection Board.

Anyways, this may be nothing more than a case of YMMV. Perhaps more importantly, re hangover: are you a teetotaler or just someone with an enviably speedy metabolism?

At one time the Pope had a standing order that all those tusks be sent to him at the Vatican! They believed they were the horns of unicorns and that ground up they made a very powerful boner pill! I’ll leave it to you to decide why a man committed to chastity and celibacy would require boner pills

@Corner Stone:
Note, though, that if you read the article it doesn’t sound as if the narwhals were killed specifically for their tusks. They’re an apparently profitable byproduct of legal hunting by Canadian First Nations, who are allowed to hunt them under the limited subsistence hunting exemption in international whaling treaties. The hunters are killing them for food, and money they get from the tusks is a nice bonus. The smugglers were apparently buying them legally in Canada and then smuggling them into the USA, where they are illegal (except, IIRC, for similar subsistence hunting by Native Alaskans).

For 3 blissful months the Commonwealth will be represented by Senior Senator Elizabeth Warren and Junior Senator Barney Frank. Massachusetts as Blue as it should be.

And probably getting more than its share of prime time interviews. Senator Frank unleashed. TV dream. Barney explains it all for you, especially exploding the falsehood that voting against raising the debt ceiling is about taking a principled stand against spending, when it’s really crazed and sleazy welching and destroying the future of the Republic.

Besides, for the rest of his days – and may they, knock wood, be long – he will be referred to as Senator Frank. Proper reward for his long service.

At one time the Pope had a standing order that all those tusks be sent to him at the Vatican! They believed they were the horns of unicorns and that ground up they made a very powerful boner pill! I’ll leave it to you to decide why a man committed to chastity and celibacy would require boner pills

Standing order. Tee Hee.

I guess the Pope has a commitment to celibacy (being unmarried). Not sure about the chastity thing.

@Corner Stone:
Everybody (you know who you are) who advises “Just ignore McMegan” has it wrong–she’s a paid shill with access to high-profile platforms from which to spew her idiocy and therefore, a witchdangerous to decent people. McMegan skewerers are to be applauded and encouraged. I won’t be happy until she’s reduced to hosting a cooking show on which she can demonstrate automatic German open-face cheese sandwich makers.

If Patrick is against putting anyone in who will run for the seat, than anyone else will have the same weakness as a placeholder and be unable to make deals with other senators. Anyone picked will be the 100th most Junior Senator and get the Committee leftovers and crumbs.

At least Frank has a proven ability to get on TV, and for quotable lines that can plausibly affect the wider debate.

Frank also seems to be immune to lobbyists and the like, being old enough to want to retire completely means he doesn’t want to be the 7 figure President of some lobbying firm. The fact that he wants to take a Senate gig says he doesn’t already have such a thing lined up.

No, I think he’d be a good pick and could do some good. More that anyone else I can think of in that spot.

Everybody (you know who you are) who advises “Just ignore McMegan” has it wrong–she’s a paid shill with access to high-profile platforms from which to spew her idiocy and therefore, a witchdangerous to decent people. McMegan skewerers are to be applauded and encouraged.

I think people interested in monitoring and mocking this shill idiot ideologue cretin should do so, and be applauded for it.

I think that people not interested in being among that action team should limit themselves to reading up on the former group.

I think that no one with anything better to read and not expressly intent on engaging in monitoring & mocking should waste a single, solitary instant in reading McAddled or any other of the variety of fully-funded turds filling up our public sphere.